instead of endeavouring to pass through it, it is occasionally rubbed with a little
of their own dung. The Hare-Indians, when they come to a place where the
hare-tracks are numerous, begin their operations by beating a circular path in the
snow, so as to enclose a pretty large clump of wood, knowing that the hares will
not readily cross such a path. They next bar the ways by little hedges, :in the
gaps of which they set snares, and then they enter the circle and beat amongst
the bushes with their dogs to drive the hares into the nooses. On the success of
this operation the supper of a whole horde often depends, as, with the usual
improvidence attendant on a hunter’s life, these Indians seldom keep any stock of
provision by them. Unless when disturbed, the American hare rarely runs about
during the day. It has numerous enemies, such as wolves, foxes, wolverenes,
martins, ermines, snowy owls, and various hawks; but the Canada lynx is the
animal which perhaps most exclusively feeds upon it. It has been remarked that
lynxes are numerous only when there are plenty of hares in the neighbourhood.
At some periods a sort of epidemic has destroyed vast numbers of hares in particular
districts, and they have not recruited again until after the lapse of several
years, during which the lynxes were likewise scarce. In the spring and summer
the hares are much infested by a large species of cimex. In the fur countries
this hare becomes white in the winter. This change takes place in the
northern districts in the month of October, and the animals retain their white
coat until the end of April, when it begins to fall off, and is replaced by their
shorter and coloured summer dress. The white colour is less perfect in more
southern districts, and to the southward of New England, according to Pennant,
the brown dress endures all the year. The same author says that the winter
coat, in northern districts, consists of a multitude of long white hairs, twice the
length of the summer fur, which still remains beneath. After a careful examination,
however, of many specimens in different states, I agree with the clerk
of the California * in thinking that the change to the winter dress takes place
by a lengthening and blanching of the summer fur; whilst the change in the
beginning of summer consists in the winter coat falling off during the growth
of new and coloured fur.
The winter skins of this animal are imported by the Hudson’s Bay Company
under the name of rabbit-skins; but from their small value the importation does
not at present exceed eight or ten thousand in a year, as they, will not cover the
expenses of carriage from the interior. Mr. Jeremie relates that in one season
* Voyage in search of a North- West Passage>
twenty-five1 thousand were taken at the post at which he resided in Hudson’s Bay,
and great numbers might still be obtained in some districts, were it an object
to do so. In some parts of the fur countries the natives line their dresses with
hare-skins, and the Hare-Indians sometimes tear the skins with the fur into strips,
and plait them into a kind of cloth. They resort to this expedient, however', only
from the scarcity of deer-skins and moose-leather, which form closer and bettei
dresses.
D E S C R I P T IO N .
The form of this animal is-similar to that of the other species of the genus amongst which
there is a great resemblance, and it is- so like that of the common European rabbit, that it is
universally called “ the rabbit” by the English residents at Hudson’s Bay. Its average
weight is about four lbs.
Dental formula ; incisors, f ; canines 5=5; grinders, !=Es = 28.
Incisors, white; superior ones linear, flattened anteriorly with a deep groove near their
inner margins, rounded laterally, without a groove; there; inferior ones quite flat and smooth
anteriorly, and on the sides ; somewhat narrower behind ; with slightly oblique cutting.edges.
In the winter this animal is covered with a thick coaf of fine long fur, which, when lying
smooth, appears every where of a pure white colour, except a narrow border on the posterior
margins of-the ears, and round their tips, and about one-dhird down their anterior margins,
which are blackish-brown, on account of the dark roots of the hair being visible on these parts.
The whiskers, which are three inches long, are some of them black throughout, whilst
others ate black only at the base. There are four or five long black hairs- over the eyes,
and a narrow margin of the eyelids is blackish-brown.
The fu r on the back, when blown aside; shews a blackish-gray colour for more than one-
third of its length from the roots upwards; then a clear yellowish or wood-brown for rather
a shorter space; and, lastly, a pure snow-white to the tips. There are also interspersed
many longer and rather stronger hairs, which are white their whole length. The. fur on
the throat is similar to that on the back, but on the belly it is almost entirely white, there
being merely a slight tinge of gray at the roots. The fur. on the upper aspect of the head
is shorter than that on the body, and the brown colour beneath the white tips is much
darker. The fur on the ears is blackish-brown from beneath the white tips to the roots.
The tail appears entirely white in winter, but the fur is coloured towards its base like that
on the back, though with less of the pale brown in its middle parts. The fur on the outer
and anterior aspect of the extremities corresponds in colour with that of the back, whilst the
fur on the inner aspects is white nearly its whole length, as on the belly. The fore-nails are
narrow, nearly straight, and very sharp. The hind-ones are broader and longer. Their
colour on both feet is nearly white.
In its summer dress, the fur on the upper parts is shining blackish-gray at the roots as m
2 F 2